Fan the Flame - a Journey Through Actsഉദാഹരണം

Day 33 - The Jerusalem Council

We are imperfect beings, saved and being sanctified by the grace of God. When we gather and form the church, there will be issues that arise; Differences of opinion, theological understandings, and the method or form of ministry that we should pursue. I have issues in my church, and you would have issues in your church. What makes the difference between an effective and ineffective community is what we do when these issues arise.

Today's passage is a great example of what happens when issues arise in the church. The church in Acts 15 were dealing with the issue of who should and should not be circumcised. This, for most of us, is not an issue in the church today. But for the church birthed out of the Old Covenant law into the New Covenant these fresh decisions had to be made and decided on as the church grew in number and across cultures. So, the local church appointed Paul and Barnabas to head to the great assembly in Jerusalem to discuss the issue. Like good Baptists, they gathered for a member's meeting and heard what God was doing in His church. We read that the whole assembly became silent as they listened to this. After they heard all that needed to be said, they all agreed that this issue was preventing people from entering into a relationship with God, and circumcision should not be something asked of new believers. The church took the posture to forgo a cultural and religious tradition not central to the message of the gospel to remove the barrier for new believers.

So, this should make you question what are you doing in your church life practice that is making it difficult for people to come into a relationship with God. What barriers have we put up for our community that we don’t know of? Is there a barrier of theological understanding, or practice, or something else? What can you do today to humbly lead effective change that allows more people to access a relationship with God?

Let’s pray and ask the Lord to fan our hearts into flame today as we seek to obey Him. Pray that God will examine your heart. Pray that he would show you the ways in our church life practice that is making it difficult for people to access a relationship with God. Then ask him to remove it.

Written by Dan Keevers